Brooklyn Man Rescues Cat Family from Sandy’s Wrath

I love a good everyday hero story, especially when it involves a man, a cat, and a natural disaster. Here’s one that will reassure you that human beings are essentially decent, and even in the face of grave risks to their own safety, they’re willing to go the extra mile (or two) for the most vulnerable among us.

The orange pointer is Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn. Many low-lying areas of the borough were evacuated due to the threat of a massive storm surge. Image: screen shot from Google Maps.

Spencer Service, a 26-year-old park employee, looked out his window and saw a mother cat and a litter of newborn kittens huddled in the alley behind his building. He and his roommate decided they couldn’t just stand by and let the cats fend for themselves in the face of the oncoming storm, so they decided they’d try to give the felines some shelter.

The pair went to the alley with a cardboard box, hoping it would help to keep the rain away. But as Service walked back to the apartment, he couldn’t help but feel that he had to do better -- so he lined a cat carrier with T-shirts and went back to rescue the mom and kittens.

Spencer Service found this mother cat and her newborn kittens huddled together for shelter from the storm.

He wasn’t sure whether the mother cat would be receptive to his efforts. After all, mom cats are known to be fiercely protective of their newborns.

It turns out he didn’t have to worry: The cat walked into the carrier. Service picked up the kittens one by one and put them in with her, then walked nearly two miles to Sean Casey Animal Rescue to save the little family from the storm’s increasing wrath.

Mom and kittens are now doing well, staying in a clean, dry home with one of the rescue’s volunteers until the kittens are old enough to be adopted.

As for Service: “I’m planning on taking one of them,” he says. “I can’t not.”

Spencer Service, we salute you for risking your own safety to save cats in need. There’s a place in heaven for people like you!